The point of “live weather” is to get representative conditions. The point of this thread is that it’s not happening. I would happy before with “close enough”, but it’s not close at all.
I agree… it should be . But when it comes to Low Visibility, Fog/Mist/Smoke and even Rain, it isn’t accurate most of the time. I’ve seen some times it is.
What really needs to happen is they need to process the data server side with a blend of METAR and Meteoblue that covers all the aspects of the weather and updating those models at a quicker pace / frequency. My assumption is that the models are not being updated frequently because I see the Meteoblue website info being accurate pretty much all the time vs. what the Sim shows.
It shows that the server models on Azure are not frequently updated Or they need to take more data into account and merge the models (custom work - which will take more time to make it work)
1 Like
The MeteoBlue model is created twice each day at 0000Z and 1200Z. Those are the two times when worldwide upper air observations are available, which is an important ingredient in setting the model’s initial conditions. Each model run will contain weather data for the entire world based on a 30km grid, with forecast data for each discrete UTC hour from the model initialization time out to T+24.
I’m not sure how the completed model gets from MeteoBlue to Microsoft for loading into the servers that stream the data to MSFS clients. Either MeteoBlue pushes the model package to Microsoft, or Microsoft pulls it from MeteoBlue. Probably the latter.
I think (but do not know for sure) that the real-time surface METAR observations come from a different source. There are numerous sites that host up-to-date worldwide METAR observations, including the official NOAA aviationweather.gov web site, as well as several universities that have large meteorological education programs.
They really have some work to do with their live weather depiction.
Flew from Lisbon to Dublin today and checked the NOOA servers for the local METAR at EIDW.
The entire afternoon there was freezing fog over there with no significant changes with visibilities down to 400 ft.
When I arrived on final in the sim, there was no such thing as fog and certainly no low visibility.
I really don’t get how they think their weather synthesis is an accurate and acceptable representation of current real world conditions.
When is MSFS going to get the weather right? I just flew into Nashua NH , KASH, and the weather was a nice overcast fall day. Only one problem it’s been SNOWING there for three days and there is over a foot of snow on the ground. Nothing shows in the MSFS “live” weather. Doesn’t look like the weather engine is any better than the ATC that keeps flying you into the tops of mountains on approaches.
2 Likes
The forecast model can only predict what is happening at the current time the sim launches. If active snow is falling at the time you spawn at a given airport and the Live Weather does not show snow falling, that may be a “miss” in the forecast. But, there is no way that the model can predict that that there should already be a foot of snow on the ground from previous storm activity. No forecast model contains that kind of data,
However, accumulated snowfall for a given location is available from other sources such as:
https://www.weather.gov/crh/snowfall
There is a similar problem in FSX/P3D, despite highly-regarded weather engines like ActiveSky. In P3D, my home airport in upstate New York always has snow on the ground from December through February, which has no relation to any snow cover that might actually exist.
Meteoblue also provide snow depth data, and that might be easier to integrate given Meteoblue and Asobo are already collaborating and have APIs set up.
That would really be awesome if that could be integrated!
4 Likes
Four months later and we STILL don’t have real weather. It’s getting annoying. I’m using REX weather force just to see snow when there’s literally a blizzard going on in the northeast US currently.
Asobo – this can’t be that hard. Meteoblue needs to go.
1 Like
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but why would the sim be designed to use a forecast model to depict real world weather? Why not use actual real world weather observations? Even beyond METARs, meteoblue has data on just about everything going on at any given moment. Could the problems stem from attempting to simulate real world conditions when half the data is actual observations and the other half is basically a prediction?
They don’t, and neither does anyone else. Finding reliable weather observation data for any particular location, let alone all locations, is extremely difficult. I have had to try to source such data for professional purposes and even if you are willing to pay it is just not available. If you want current data, even if by “current” you mean an hour old, it gets even harder.
METAR data is a bit of an exception, at least in many parts of the world, but why that is not sufficient has been discussed countless times already.
Short term forecast models on the other hand are readily available for the entire world at all times.
1 Like
The problem isn’t Meteoblue. If you check their website you can notice the forecast are absolutely spot on. It’s how they implemented it in MSFS: it’s still faulty after 4 months …
5 Likes
I understand why they’re not relying entirely on METARs, especially for clouds. As @HalberQuacky explained, they are using METARs for only wind, temperature and pressure and relying on a forecast model for clouds and precip. But what information does meteoblue not have with regard to current conditions?
On their own site, they have worldwide data on cloud types, cloud base height, cloud top height, satellite, radar and precip. Even in areas with no reporting stations, like in the middle of the ocean. And as another user mentioned before, they have data on estimated snow depth.
2 Likes
They have data, yes. But where does it say that data is all observations? How would you measure hourly precipitation in every point of the world, including any random spot in the middle of the ocean?
Weather in the middle of the ocean is tracked all the time. That’s how we know the position and relevant data of hurricanes, no? I assume weather satellites capture this data, with radar as well if within range.
1 Like
It doesn’t take a meteorologist to know that the weather in MSFS 2020 is terrible. They need major improvements sooner rather than later.
1 Like
Sure, cloud cover and cloud tops is easy from satellite. Cloud base is not, and you do not have direct measurements of precipitation. So all those fancy plots on Meteoblue’s maps are to a large extent model output, not direct observations. Nothing wrong with that.
The issue I’ve been having with live weather is this: The baro pressure in game doesn’t match real world sometimes. Certain airports don’t have atis/awos so I look up the metar reports online and use the altimeter and wind data. When these don’t match to what the game is doing weather-wise you will have altitude discrepancies (which can be serious sometimes). Also, some of the atis/awos reports from the game itself are seriously inaccurate. Meaning the data the game gives you to set your altimeter is not in harmony with the actual barometric pressure that the game is exhibiting. I try to practice a lot of IFR/IMC flights and it is really frustrating when you can’t get reliable data to achieve a safe altitude.
I ve been flying to Munchen and the metar said fog and RVR of 500 mt while the weather in the game was clear skies… idk what i can do to fix this (btw i’m using the dev A32NX mod)
The issue here is that for some unknown reason fog is not modeled at all in Live Weather … that’s the problem.
1 Like
so that’s why I have clear skies bc there were no clouds reported in the METAR
1 Like